The ''Federal Appendix'' was a

case law Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is a law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of ...

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

published by

West Publishing West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has ...

from 2001 to 2021. It collected judicial opinions of the United States courts of appeals that were not expressly selected or designated for publication. Such " unpublished" cases are ostensibly without value as

precedent Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...

. However, the Supreme Court made a change to the

Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

in 2006. Now, Rule 32.1 says that federal circuit courts are not allowed to prohibit the citation of unpublished opinions issued on or after January 1, 2007. Nevertheless, principles articulated in an opinion designated as "not for publication" are treated by the judges of that circuit as not necessarily binding on future panels hearing similar cases, nor on the district judges within the circuit. "Published" opinions of the U.S. courts of appeals appear in the ''

Federal Reporter The ''Federal Reporter'' () is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing and a part of the National Reporter System. It begins with cases decided in 1880; pre-1880 cases were later retroactively compiled b ...

'' and are considered to be binding precedent within that circuit until and unless overruled by the court of appeals sitting

en banc In law, an ''en banc'' (; alternatively ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank''; ) session is when all the judges of a court sit to hear a case, not just one judge or a smaller panel of judges. For courts like the United States Courts of Appeal ...

, or by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. Opinions of all the circuits of the United States courts of appeals are included in the ''Federal Appendix''. The ''Federal Appendix'' organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full text of the court's opinion. West attorney editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the West American Digest System. The ''

Bluebook ''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of Law school in the United States, law schools in the United S ...

'' calls for citations to the ''Federal Appendix'' to be abbreviated as F. App'x.

Westlaw Westlaw is an Computer-assisted legal research, online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of ca ...

, however, abbreviates citations to the ''Federal Appendix'' as Fed. Appx. 861 hardbound volumes of the ''Federal Appendix'' were issued. Publication of ''Federal Appendix'' ceased in 2021, but nonprecedential United States courts of appeals opinions are still available on Westlaw,

LexisNexis LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...

, and other on-line resources. There is debate within the legal community about the desirability or even the legitimacy of designating certain judicial opinions as without precedential value.

External links

Official West Publishing site for the ''Federal Appendix''

References

National Reporter System {{US-law-stub